What do you want to be when you grow up? Be in the Army, like Dad and Mum? Isaac and Connie King are believed to be the first married couple to enlist together in the New Zealand Army. Their five sons are Saino Ratima, 11, back left, and Zem Ratima, 9, back right, with baby Zacarno King, 10 months, front left, Varcon Ratima, six and Nacarzva Wilkinson, four.
Picture: ©Sam Baker of the Manawatu Standard

Taking the High Road

Sick of rough neighbourhoods and going nowhere, Connie and Isaac King decided to join the Army.

Story By Lee Matthews of the Manawatu Standard

View "Close Up" TVNZ Interview

When a murder happened two blocks away from her home in Napier’s rough and poor Maraenui suburb, Connie King decided she’d had enough.

Had enough of pinching to feed and clothe her family on less than $25,000 a year. Had enough of trying to keep five young sons safe and straight with gang recruitment active in the neighbourhood – she couldn't let them walk to the shop unaccompanied. Had enough of living frightened.

So she and husband Isaac King, 20, joined the Army, enlisting together, as a married couple.

Linton camp public relations officer Paul Stein believes it’s the first time a married couple have gone through basic training at the same time, although it’s not unusual to have married couples serving in the Army.

‘‘We just got sick of being among it all the time,’’ Private Connie King, 27, says. ‘‘This is so much better, we’re safe in the Army community, we've got careers, we've got a future for the kids.’’

They applied, and began planning to move before they were accepted, because they needed to get their children settled into new schools.

At the same time they knuckled down and knocked off the academic entry requirements – level one NCEA English and eight credits in maths. Neither of them had qualifications before they started.

They expected basic training to be hard work, and it was. Private Isaac King whose Napier job was running alongside a truck picking up recycling, had no problems with the men’s enlistment fitness requirements – running 2.4 kilometres in 12 minutes, and 15 press-ups and 45 curl-ups.

The women’s starter fitness levels are slightly less stringent – running the mile in 14 minutes, and being able to do eight press-ups and 35 curl-ups.

The couple were put into two different training platoons, Wrigg and Maling. Training involves good-natured competition between the platoons, and having King vs King added an extra fillip.

‘‘He’d beat me on the fitness,’’ Connie says.

‘‘Yeah, but you’d beat me on everything else,’’ Isaac says, grinning.

Basic training was about pushing personal limits to the utmost.

‘‘So many times the sweat would just drip off you. It was about finding your top limit and going way, way past it. It feels so good, it’s such a sense of accomplishment,‘‘ Connie says.

The biggest thing she learned was how much time there was in a minute.

‘‘On basic you’re busy from 5.45am to 9.45pm. You get so much time in a minute. The sergeant will say three minutes to get into your PT kit and the first time you go, what? Then you just do it. You really learn the value of a minute in the Army.’’

Meanwhile, Connie’s mother cared for their children. She looked after them during the 13-week training, helping the boys, aged from 11 to five months at that time, adjust to not having mum and dad around – ‘‘huge support for us,‘‘ Connie says.

‘‘One of my sons stopped talking for a couple of weeks, he was a bit upset. But the Army helped us sort that out.‘‘

They had to stick to the no fraternisation rule between recruits during training – so their contacts were short, and platonic. ‘‘Mostly lunches.’’

The couple say their lives are much easier in the Army. Living in an Army house at Linton camp, their old Napier $280-a-week rent has halved. (Army rents are discounted 40 percent on market rents.)

As privates, both now earn $40,646 a year, and that’s just the start.

‘‘We’re way better off, way more comfortable, it’s much easier now,’’ Connie says.

They’re now gearing up for more training. Isaac now works in supply, but aspires to a trade such as electrician, plumber or carpenter.

Connie is with administration, and her long-term goal is to move to engineering.

‘‘I just want to learn everything I can, go as far as I can,’’ Connie says.

The race is on to see who gets to deploy overseas first – and who first makes sergeant.

HOW TO JOIN

• www.army.mil.nz has all the information. There are links to the Air Force and Navy as well.
• Army recruits start on $31,984. That jumps to $40,646 on reaching the rank of Private.
• General minimum academic qualifications are English NCEA level 1 and 8 credits in maths. Trades have their own minimum qualifications.
• All applicants must pass a police records check, full medical, fitness requirements and a recruiter interview. People with minor, one-off criminal offences may not necessarily be excluded – it comes down to seriousness of the offence, time elapsed since the offence and the applicant’s honesty and integrity since conviction.

Download a copy of the Manawatu Standard Article | 2496kb - 1 Page